Cousin's (Fort Worth, TX)

I commute to Fort Worth for work almost every day, but I rarely eat there outside of fast food joints close to my office. A co-worker told me that Cousin's had some awesome 'que, so today I took a short road trip for lunch. I was surprised to see that they had a drive-thru, which I took advantage of since I was planning on getting my food to-go anyway. Even from the drive-thru window I could smell the smoky aroma wafting from inside this local legend.

I ordered the Two Meat Combination platter with pulled pork and smoked German sausage (surprise, surprise) and got mustard potato salad and macaroni and cheese on the side.

For some reason I always start my review with the side dishes. I guess that's because I'd rather get them out of the way and focus on the meaty goodness. Oh well. The mac and cheese tasted like Easy Mac, but that's ok since I happen to like quasi-edible macaroni. The potato salad was actually really good and had a decent amount of spice to it. There seemed to be a little paprika or chili powder or something sprinkled on top, which added a nice kick at the end of each bite.

The sausage had a nice smoky flavor and plenty of pepper to boot. It was sliced thin, which I think helped keep each piece moist while sitting in its own juices. But the real star here was the pulled pork. It was magnificently tender and had a small load of sauce mixed right it. I usually don't add sauce to my meat if I can avoid it, but this worked really well and didn't detract from the meat's natural flavors at all. I completely annihilated the pulled pork in under a minute, so that should tell you something.

My order came with a small container of sauce on the side, which really wasn't needed for this meal given the sausage's natural flavor and the sauce pre-mixed into the pulled pork. I tend to think adding sauce is a way to mask a pitmaster's inability to cook flavor into the meat directly, but Cousin's definitely didn't have that problem.

If you're ever in southwest Fort Worth, this place is worth a stop.

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Cousin's Bar-B-Q
5125 Bryant Irvin Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76132
(817) 346-3999
http://www.cousinsbbq.com